Rainfall records break, and floods follow

Graham Readfearn in The Guardian notes:

The Bureau of Meteorology has been checking the rainfall data from the floods in south-east Queensland, revealing a string of broken records and a stunning amount of rain.

In the six days from 23 to 28 February, at least 33 places recorded more than one metre of rain, including an astonishing 1.77 metres falling at Mount Glorious, just east of Wivenhoe Dam that helps reduce flooding in the city.

Parts of south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales had at least 2.5 times their average rainfall for the month, with some areas getting five times the average.

In Brisbane, 792.8mm fell into the city rain gauge over the six days to 9am on 28 February, which is above the previous six-day record of 655.8mm set in January 1974.

For the first time ever, the city had three consecutive days when more than 200mm fell. Before last month, there had only been eight previous days when the city had seen more than 200mm in one day.

The BoM national manager of climate services, Dr Karl Braganza, said this meant the city had received almost 80% of its annual average rainfall in only six days.

In northern New South Wales, several places in the northern rivers region had daily totals above 500mm up to 9am on 28 February.

Braganza said preliminary analysis of rainfall in Lismore, which is currently inundated, suggested more rain had fallen in the town than the previous record in March 2017 when the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Debbie passed through.

As I've been noting for years - climate change and its effect on rain and floods was the massively disruptive and costly effect that was not discussed enough in early talk about climate change, and just imagine how much worse it may get with another .5 to 1 degree temperature rise.